re: Industries that are exempt from Antitrust Laws (Posted on 7/19/13 at 3:21 pm to TigerGman)

quote:Hold on. Let me fire up my Netscape browser to read that link, which odds are was typed up on WordPerfect. Oh wait-never mind.

WTF? Do you not care to hear the argument? I figured Alan Greenspan would do a much better job than myself in making the argument. You can also find similar arguments throughout the Austrian school. The Mises Institute site has numerous articles on the concept. It's certainly not an original argument of mine.

But if reading makes your head hurt too much, then try this video: LINK

re: Industries that are exempt from Antitrust Laws (Posted on 7/19/13 at 3:23 pm to TigerGman)

Monopoly use to mean special privileges granted by an authority. In the modern day sense, it is impossible to maintain a monopoly without some form of overwhelming force and or threat of violence. The form people are most comfortable with is government. The other type (like the drug cartels) people aren't so comfortable with.

re: Industries that are exempt from Antitrust Laws (Posted on 7/19/13 at 3:35 pm to WikiTiger)

quote:There is a great amount of browser competition as well as office suite competition.

How many years did consumers suffer with IE cause Microsoft was able to crush the competition by giving it away for free? It took years before alternatives could find way to compete. A similar case can be made for the way Microsoft crushed WordPerfect.

re: Industries that are exempt from Antitrust Laws (Posted on 7/19/13 at 3:36 pm to LSURussian)

quote:All of those came about AFTER various governments forced MSFT to allow browser competitors to be used on their operating system.

you know what, I'm actually going to reply to this idiocy despite my commitment to never reply to you.

The issue was not that other browser could not be installed. In fact, it was always VERY easy to install other browsers on Windows. The issue was about Microsoft bundling their browsers and making it too integral a part of the operating system which made removing it potentially hazardous (to average users).

But even before the government forced Microsoft to change things, other browsers were available and common.